Long-life sudsing blend and pad incorporating same

ABSTRACT

THE USEFUL LIFE OF A SUDSING-TYPE SOLID CLEANING COMPOSITION IS INCREASED BY INTIMATELY BLENDING IT WITH CERTAIN PROTEINACEOUS HYDROPHILIC COLLOIDAL AGGLUTINANTS, ESPECIALLY GELATIN OR CASEIN. THE COMPOSITION IS ADVANTAGEOUSLY INCORPORATED IN SCOURING PADS OF VARIOUS TYPES.

United States Patent ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The useful life of asudsing-type solid cleaning composition is increased by intimatelyblending it with certain proteinaceous hydrophilic colloidalagglutinants, especially gelatin or casein. The composition isadva'ntageously incorporated in scouring pads ofvarious types.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTlON This application is a continuation-in-partof Ser. No. 18,712 filed Mar. 11, 1970 now abandoned.

It has long been common to incorporate a solid soap or syntheticdetergent (preferably anionic to promote sudsing) in steel wool pads andsimilar cleaning products. Manufacturers of such products haveconsistently battled the problem of how to make the detergent dissolvereadily while still preserving its availability over an extended period'of time. Thus, US. Pat. No.'2,62l,3.55 suggests blending corn meal orwood flour with the detergent to serve as an absorbent material. US.Pat; No. 3,261,675 describes a nonwoven abrasive scouring pad containingdetergent material, carboxymethyl cellulose or fullers earth being addedto retard release of the detergent. U.S. Pat. No. 2,733,211 disclosesthecombination of synthetic detergent and film-forming binding agents suchas flour, starch, sugar gum arabic, alginates, corn gluten, egg albumin,wax, cellulose derivatives, polyethyleneoxides and polyvinyl alcohol.Althoughsu'ch additives are perhaps beneficial to a degree, they havebeen unsuccessful in significantly increasing the useful life of thesoap or detergent composition. The most common approach to the problemhas been to concentrate the cleaning composition in bars, blocks, cakes,etc. within the scouring pad, thereby reducing the surface area exposedto water; see, e.g., US. Pat. No. 3,261,675. i

It is believed that, prior to the present invention there has been noeifective method of significantly prolonging the useful life of asudsing cleaning composition, especially when incorporated in a cleaningstructure such as a scouring pad.

SUMMARY Thepresent invention provides anew composition of matter havingparticular long-life utility when incorporated in sponges, scouring padsand the like. This composition comprises an intimate blend of a solidsudsing cleaning composition and a hydrophilic proteinaceous colloidalagglutinant' such as-gelatinor casein. It -has been discovered that whenthe weight of agglutinant is at least 6% of the weight of sudsingcleaning composition, the effective life of a cleaning structureincorporating the novel blend is surprisingly increased by a factor ofseveral times over a product not containing the agglutinant. When theweight of agglutinant is more than 50% of the weight of sudsing cleaningcomposition, no further improvement is noted, and the greater amountstend to. impart an undesirable slimy feel to; the composition.Therefore, the preferred amount of agglutinant in the blend is from 6%to 50% ofthe weight of the sudsingcomposition. w

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Gelatin is a strong, elasticcollagen-based proteinaceous emulsoid colloid which has been known andused as an adhesive for centuries. It is an odorless, dry hard, hornlikealbuminoid, having a specific gravity of about 1.3 and ranging in colorfrom pure white to light amber. Animal glue, a less pure, darker coloredform of gelatin, will be considered to fall within the generic termgelatin hereinafter. Gelatin, which normally retains 16-18% water,swells to many times its normal volume when immersed in cold water butdoes not dissolve; when heated to 50 C.-60 C., the swollen gelatinpasses readily into a uniform colloidal solution.

Casei1i,'a phosphoprotein derived from milk, has also been used for manyyears as an adhesive. It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless coniugateprotein which is very sparingly soluble in water but readily forms acolloidal solution in alkalies. It is somewhat hydroscopic and normallyretains about 7-l0% moisture.

The solid sudsing cleaning composition may consist merely of soap or asynthetic detergent, or may be a mixture. based upon a combinationincluding one or both types of materials. In fact, any compositioncontaining soap and/or synthetic detergent known in the art for use inscouring pads will be significantly improved by practicing theinvention.

Detergents which may be included in the sudsing cleaning compositioninclude any natural or synthetic detergent which is normally considerednontoxic and nonirritating and is solid at room temperature. Thedetergent may be nonionic, anionic, or amphoteric, although anionicdetergents .are preferred. Among the anionic detergents which are mostpreferred for the solid sudsing cleaning composition are syntheticanionic detergents such as the sodium or amine salts of alkylarylsulfonic acid (e.g., Ultrawet DS, a registered trademark of the AtlanticRichfield Company); soaps such as sodium or potassium salts of stearic,oleie or palmitic acids; sodium or potassium tallow, coconut oil or palmkernel soaps; sodium or amine salts of sulfonated alkyls, alkyl,sulfonic acids, sulfated alkyl ethers or sulfated ethoxyated alkylphenols; sulfated fatty esters; and lauryl sulfate.

Among the non-ionic synthetic detergents which are suitable for use assolid sudsing compositions are solid ethoxylated alcohols, acids,phenols and esters which contain OH groups, in addition to amines,amides, ethoxylated amines and ethoxylated amides. Also desirable aresolid condensation products of an alkanol amine and higher fatty acids,triglycerides, esters, amides or anhydrides.

A particularly useful sudsing-type cleaning composition for scouringpads may be prepared by blending up to parts by weight of a syntheticanionic detergent of the type mentioned above with from 5 to parts byweight of any of the'above-mentioned room temperature solid soaps. Thesesoaps are relatively slowly soluble and they thus tend to function as alubricant to enhance the polishing ability of the cleaning compositioncontaining pad. Since such soaps may counteract the suds-producingtendencies of the anionic detergents, it may be beneficial to includefrom about 5 to 25 parts by weight of a nonionic surfactant such ascoconut monoethanol amide as a suds stabilizer. Examples of othercompounds which are known to be useful as suds stabilizers arediethanolamides of fatty acids; for particular examples see Encyclopediaof Chemical Technology, Kirk-Othmer, 'vol. 19, pp. 550-551 (1969) Wiley,New York. To facilitate the solution or low-density abrasive scouringpads, and composite structures incorporating one or more of theforegoing. Other cleaning or scouring structures include natural orcellulosic sponges, terry cloth, pads formed of narrow aluminum, bronzeor plastic ribbons, or composite products of the type shown in US. Pats.No. 2,804,728 and No. 3,080,688. The novel long-life sudsing blend ofthe invention can be distributed throughout the structure of a scouringpad but it is preferably incorporated as a block in the interior of thepad.

The blend of the invention may also include compatible coloring agents,such as dyes or pigments and/ or materials which improve its odor suchas perfume. Such additives are well known in the soap compounding art.

DESCRIPTION OF PRESENTLY PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Although the previousdescription clearly shows that the invention is susceptible to numerousvariations, it is believed that understanding will be facilitated by thesubsequent listing of illustrative but non-limiting examples, in whichall parts are by weight unless otherwise indicated.

In evaluating the efl ectiveness of the invention in prolonging theuseful suds life, it has been found convenient to utilize the followingtest.

A detergent-impregnated pad is dried for one hour at 105 C. and thenplaced in a 3.8 liter cylindrical glass jar which is about 25 cm. high,15 cm. in diameter, and fitted with a 9 cm. diameter screw cap. Twoliters of tap water at about 45 C. is placed in the jar, together withthe pad to be tested. The lid is firmly screwed on the jar, which isthen laid on its side with its axis parallel to the line of movement ofan Eberbach shaker. The shaker is activated to move the jar to and frothrough a 38 mm. stroke, for 60 seconds at slow speed (180 cycles perminute), and 30 seconds at high speed (280 cycles per minute). Theamount of suds is then noted, the pad removed and the sudsy water pouredout. The procedure described above is repeated with fresh water until nosuds are apparent at the end of the high speed cycle. It has been foundempirically that the number of test cycles required to exhaust thedetergent is approximately twice the number of times a housewife can usethe detergentcontaining scouring pad and still obtain suds.

The blends of the examples which follow are generally prepared by firstsoaking the gelatin in cold water for several hours or overnight andthen heating the resultant mixture at about 65 C. to form a smooth 30%colloidal solution. A separate composition, formed from water and thecomponents of the sudsing composition is heated to 65 C. and blendedwith the desired amount of 30% glue solution. Additional water is addedas needed to achieve a suitable coating or impregnating viscosity.

The pads used in the examples below are 75 x 100 x 25 mm. in size,weighing approximately 10 grams and are cut from a Web of the typedescribed in US. Pat. No. 2,958,593, having a void volume greater than90%. The web is made from 50 denier oriented polyethylene tercphthalatefibers which are air-laid to form a nonwoven mat, roll-coated with aslurry of abrasive grains and polyurethane resin to bond the fiberstogether, the polyurethane resin cured, the bonded web spray-coated onsides with a slurry of phenol-formaldehyde resin and abrasive granules,and the phenolic resin cured.

The pad is submerged in a solution or dispersionof the sudsing blend andthereafter passed throuhg a set of metering rolls set at approximately 6mm. spacing. Immediately after the web emerges from the metering rolls,a strong current of air is impinged on both surfaces to cool it and, tosome extent, to blow the sudsing blend toward the interior of the web,after which it is dried at 4 about 150 C. for two minutes and at about105 C. for one hour. The weight of a dried impregnated pad is typically22 grams, indicating that about 12 grams of a sudsing blend has beenapplied.

Using the procedures described above the following examples wereprepared and evaluated for suds life.

Examples Control 1 2 3 4 5 6 High-sudsing anionic detergent 1 100 100100 100 100 100 Soap 2 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 Suds stabilizer 40 40 40 4040 40 40 Propylene glycol. 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 Animal glue 11. 5 l5. 219. 2 23 33 46 Weight of compos per pad, grams Y 14 12. 5 12 12 9 l6 9Suds life, cycles; 3 6 14 17 12 11 12 1 The sodium salt of alkyl arylsulfonate, commercially available under the trade designation Ultrawet.DS. l n I Tallow soap sold under the trade designatlon Saratoga ChipsHigh Titre Soap.

3 Coconut fatty acid monoethanol amide. l A Extra Standard" (high jellystrength) hide glue.

Example 7 Example 8 A large hypodermic syringe, filled with an aqueoussolution containing about 10 grams of the composition of Example 4, wasinserted in the center of one end of a pad identical to those used inprevious examples. The solution was then expelled substantially in theform of a 1 cm. x 8 cm. cylinder and the water evaporated. When the padwas tested as in previous examples, the suds life was 37 cycles. Anidentically prepared pad, except that the glue was omitted from theinjected composition, had a suds life of 10 cycles.

Example 9 A conventional soap-filled steel wool scouring pad wassubjected to the test described and found to have a suds life of 1cycle. When an identical soap-fi1led pad was rinsed free of soap underhot running water, oven-dried, and then treated with the composition ofExample 4, the suds life was 15 cycles. A second pad, rinsed free ofsoap and then treated with the composition ofkthe previously tabulatedcontrol, showed a sudslife of 6 cycles.

Example 10 A 27% solution of casein in ammonia was prepared by stirringthe casein into an aqueous ammonium hydroxide solution in a water bathat about 55 C. until a smooth colloidal solution resulted. This solutionwas substituted for the 30% glue solution used in Example 4 and used totreat a pad identical to thatused inExamples l-8, so as to leave 15grams of sudsing composition distributed throughout. When the pad wassubjected to the suds life test, it lasted for 16 cycles.

Following the procedure" of Example 8 (except using a 40% glue.solution-in place of the 30%"solution)', the following soap compositionswere prepared and injected into pads identical to those described inExamples 1-8.

5 The pads were dried and evaluated for suds life with results asfollows:

EXAMPLES 11-21 Percent Suds aceous agglutinant being from about 6% to50% of the weight of said cleaning composition.

2. The article of claim 1 wherein said pad comprises a lofty low-densitynon-woven fibrous abrasive product.

3. The article of claim 2 wherein the weight of said 5 I Eff Cleaningcomposition lii 1 2;? blend is approximately equal to the weight of thelow- 11 Anionic deter an 6 density abrasive product. (in g 10 9 4. Thearticle of claim 1 wherein the hydrophilic pro- 25 11 teinaceouscolloidal agglutinant is gelatin. i: i? detergent: 13 53 10 5. Thearticle of claim 4 wherein the gelatin is tanned. 16- 25 30 0 12 6. Thearticle of claim 1 wherein the pad is steel wool. i 3 58 R f c' d 20::75 parts anoric an?? rt parts 0 H e erences [to 21. mni 3te en3 rii fifi's 10 30 UNITED STATES PATENTS nonionic detergent 15 parts p- 15 1074,491 9 1913 l i 52 32 zgodiumtdfogeeylhgnzene sightonafgmid ,3 7, 311/ 9 0 Paulin 252132 0001111 8 y 301 11101108 8110 G- l 5 Sodium tallowfatty acid soap. What is is: 2,733,211 1/1956 Maxey et al. 252 91 -1. Asan article of manufacture, a scouring pad 1m- 3,094,735 6/1963 Hanlon252 91 pregnated with a cleansing blend consisting essentially of asolid sudsing type cleaning composition selected from the groupconsisting of an ionic or nonionic detergents and mixtures thereof and ahydrophilic proteinaceous colloidal agglutinant selected from the groupconsisting of gelatin and casein, the weight of said hydrophilicprotein- WILLIAM E. SCHULZ, Primary Examiner 5 U. S. Cl. X.R.

